Why I Came to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

I told myself that I would start releasing some of my old work. Here is one of the first assignments I ever had as a college student. If you never heard of Simon Sinek, you need to drop what you’re doing and google him. He did a very powerful Ted Talk on the topic of “Start With Why” that one of my professors showed in class one day.

The YouTube summary describes the talk as, “Simon Sinek discusses the principal behind every successful person and business. A simple but powerful model for how leaders inspire action, starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?”.

This is an integral part in my decision to set out and inspire people.

In this new direction that I’m heading in my career path, I’ve went back to the beginning to reflect. I’m starting with why and walking people through what’s been a five year journey since my first day as a college student. I hope to show the progress in my writing and perspectives, and hopefully provide lessons and words of advice other college students in people in general facing these similar crisis.

One of those is knowing why you’re actually doing what you’re doing. Here’s an assignment I submitted my first week of college. The professor asked us why we are here. It’s a good question to ask yourself in anything you’re doing. Why are you even doing it?

Look out for the follow up of this blog!

No edits were made to this after the submission date.

Enjoy!

Oluseun Arowolaju

Mr. John Moore

Rhetoric 105

August 30, 2012

Why I came to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The decision of what college to go to is possibly the biggest decision every high school senior has to make to further their education. There are thousands of different colleges and universities not only in their home state, but country, continent, and in the entire world. Finding the one college that best fits you and your needs can be very tedious for some, but for others it can be as simple as going to their very on state college. While there are some people who feel that they are not financially or intellectually suited for the colleges in their state, others such as myself feel as if it is the perfect fit. The contributing factors involved in my decision to attend this magnificent university are ones in which I believe every student searching for their perfect college should look in to. These factors include my major of choice, my relationships with others, and my burning desire to play football.

To begin with, the most important influence on my decision to attend U of I was whether or not it had my major. Education is the main reason for coming to college to attending a university high in prestige and academically outstanding in my major was key. I decided to become a computer engineer and while researching colleges I found that U of I was ranked 4th among the top engineering schools in the nation falling behind only to MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. This makes the university the #1 ranked public engineering school, which was huge. A school with a ranking this high can never become a bad decision right? But this only covered the academic aspects of it.

In addition, I wanted to know more about the school besides what I read on paper and seen in magazines. I had many friends already at the university and I asked them how they liked it. Their responses were always positive but with the emphasis on the rigor of the courses given at the university. That seemed fair as they were known for being a top academic school. I also consoled with my parents about the decision and only being 2 hours away from home was a wonderful thing to them as I won’t be 16 hours away in Massachusetts as previously planned. My cousin, BJ Bello, also a football player had committed to play at the university and we always discussed about going to the same school. My best friend and also roommate, Kristopher Burge, had aspirations along with myself to study engineering at U of I and he was also a contributing factor to my coming here. Family and friends attending the same university as you was a huge addition to improving the comfort of coming to a school because I knew I would never be alone.

Also, football is a very important thing to me. All of my colleges in in my final list really came down to one thing, will I play football. After consulting with the coaches on a possible walk on spot at the start of the fall semester almost solidified my decision to come to this university. I could not pass up the opportunity to not only study at one of the top engineering colleges in the world, but to also to play Big 10 Division 1 football. It has always been my dream to do so and when the chance was given, I had to take it. I met with the coaches during the summer and they accepted me with open arms. Football is the one thing that I am very passionate in and I have been an Illini Football fan for as long as I can remember. That sealed the deal. I was coming to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Many factors contributed to my decision to come to U of I. The academic strength and prestige was arguably beyond that of any school in the region, especially in the fields of engineering. Education will always be the number one factor to coming. With the wide arrangements of majors and minors the school has to offer, mine was bound to be apart of the list. My friends and family also played a major role. They supported me and gave me reasons to take certain actions and pursue certain paths. Their influences was great because they have been a part of every decisions I have made prior to the college decision and they will forever be a part of every decision after. Finally, football has been my passion since I started playing 8 years ago. It has been my release, my life, and my love. It is certainly something I would love to pursue post-college but getting a degree in computer engineering or science and then a masters in the same field is a part of my plans as well. I want to be a student-athlete and always keep the student part first but football will never fall far behind. It will motivate me to study hard to remain at the university. I am happy with the decision that I have made and I am proud to be a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign undergraduate student.